About me

This blogname was derived from the novel The Secret Life Of Saeed The Pessoptimist by the Palestinian Israeli Emile Habiby: absurdism as weapon against the (ir)realities of daily life in Palestine/Israel. (The subtitle is from a book by Dutch author Renate Rubinstein. It could as well be my motto).
My real name is Martin (Maarten Jan) Hijmans. I've been covering the ME since 1977 and have been a correspondent in Cairo. I started my 'Abu Pessoptimist' blog in January 2009 out of anger during the onslaught in Gaza. The other one, The Pessoptmist, is meant to be a sister version in English. (En voor de Nederlandstaligen: ik wilde in november 2009 een tweede blog in het Engels beginnen en ontdekte te laat dat als je één account hebt, een profiel dan meteen ook voor allebei de blogs geldt. Vandaar dat het nu ineens in het Engels is... So sorry.)

Saturday, January 16, 2016

Friday: Israelis kill two in Gaza

Israeli forces, on Friday afternoon, shot dead a two Palestinianx in the Gaza -Strip. One was killed during a military invasion of al-Bureij refugee camp, in the central Gaza Strip, the other was shot during a protest in Khan Younis, in which protesters threatened a portion of the border fence.
Doctors said that 19-year-old Mohammad Abu Zayed from al-Bureij had been shot in the head. His body was taken to the al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir
al-Balah.Medics added that at least 10 other Palestinian youths had been shot and wounded by live fire during the clashes.
Some hours later, a second Palestinian died after being shot in the stomach.Gaza’s Ministry of Health spokesman Ashraf al-Qidra identified the man as Mohammad Majdi Qaita, 26, from Khan Younis. Qaita was pronounced dead shortly after being taken to the al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, the spokesman added.An Israeli army spokesperson said that protests were taking place along the border fence between the Gaza Strip and Israel on Friday and that a number of Palestinians had "breached the buffer zone" and "damaged" the fence, in the central Gaza Strip, before Israeli forces "called on them to halt and fired warning shots into the air." Shots were then fired directly at the demonstrators following the
"threat of infiltration," the spokesperson said.
The death comes two days after another Gazan was killed and three seriously wounded when Israeli artillery bombarded an area east of Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip. At least 23 other Palestinians have been shot dead by Israeli forces in clashes along the Gazan border since the beginning of October, according to the UN Agency for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
Palestinians in the Gaza Strip initially began demonstrations in solidarity with the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, when unrest grew in the occupied area during October.